General

Taking a Career Vacation? Holiday Let your house to help support you.

Holiday letting your house while you are away can help pay the mortgage.

Property Mums will do all the hard work for you.

Taking a career break can be a voluntary thing, how lucky to be in that situation. It’s not always the case though, being made redundant must be incredibly stressful, I haven’t been through it myself but I have had a lot of friends experience it, I hate seeing the stress they are under, especially if they are the main bread winner.

This could be your opportunity to take your family away for an extended break. How ridiculous right,? You just lost your job but hear me out, what if you short term let your property for the time you were away, I’m not talking for a week or so, I’m talking 2 or 3 months!! You can see parts of your country you haven’t seen before or travel overseas, I know you want to stop reading now as it sounds crazy, but it really is possible if you holiday let your house while you are away.

There are so many reasons why people end up needing or wanting to stay in short term let properties:

Visiting family; so many people live in a different country to their family or to where they were born. We have had a lot of bookings recently from people coming from the UK or Europe for 2 to 3 weeks, sometimes months so they can have an extended periods of time with their grandchildren. Cashed up retirees can afford this, man I need to work harder on my super so I will be in the position to do the same if my boys end up overseas!

Insurance work, people that are unlucky enough to have something go wrong with their house but lucky enough to have insurance that will pay for their relocation and accommodation while their house gets fixed.

A lot of the time they have to be relocated to something similar to what they live in. Recently we had a booking in for 6 weeks at $400 per night, such a great booking for a basic townhouse. It was a small family so they took fantastic care of the house.

Relocation of families while the railway is being transformed. This again is usually for a week or two. Families have to be relocated to a property of similar quality to what they live in. The relocation of the family is covered by the building program.

Renovation works, yes, some people budget in their renovation for staying in a short term let property while their house gets a partial or full renovation.

And then there are holidaymakers, coming for a two or three night stay.

As long as you can cope with opening your house up to others, it really is a viable option. Depending on the size of the house, if it’s a large house with a pool then its likely to not only pay the mortgage but also pay for some or all of your holiday expenses.

How could this possibly work? I hear you ask.

Yes, there’s going to be a bit of work involved:

Firstly; de-clutter your house and get Property Mums to do a house assessment, we will tell you the best configuration to have and how to best market the property.

Get a Property Mum stylist to do a quick inexpensive re-style of the main spaces and bedrooms.

Get professional photos taken,

Start marketing the property well before leaving, you need to be on Airbnb , Homeaway and maybe Booking.com

If you can’t imagine how you are going to manage the property while you are away and don’t want the hassle then Property Mums can do that for you too.

If you think you are up for the challenge, get your team together before you leave. You will need a reliable cleaner and set up team, I recommend having someone Co Host with you. Make sure you have gardeners sorted and a handy man that is able to attend when needed. Remote hosting is easily done as long as you have the team to support you.

It does take a bit of organising and you do have to be up for the task of de-cluttering and packing away your personal belongings, but it can be a very financially rewarding if you are prepared to take on the challenge. Alternatively again this is a service Property Mums will help you with, if you are in the position to pay for it, it can be done for you.

To prepare your house for Holiday guests you need to pack away personal items, this can be done by putting locks on some cupboards and storing things in there, obviously you will be taking clothes with you but anything left behind needs to be stored away. Cupboards can be put in garages and locked shut etc. Or you could hire inexpensive storage for the period of time you are away.

For your house to do well it does need to be in good condition and needs to be styled well so guests can imagine enjoying their stay.

A list of what is needed in a holiday house is below:

Good Quality Furniture

Dining Table that will fit all the guests staying (if possible)

Plates for all guests plus extras

2 x Frying Pans

Full Set of Pots and Pans

1 x Extra Large Pot

Cooking Utensils

Serving Platters

Salad Bowls

Good Quality Linen*

Barbecue with two gas bottles (so one is always full)

Doona Covers (2 for each bed)

2 Pillows per person

Spare Blankets for All Beds

Cleaning Products (or your tenants won’t clean)

Vacuum Cleaner

Mop and Broom

High Chair

Portacot

Cutlery (get plenty so your tenants don’t have to continuously wash)

Cereal Bowls (1 per person plus extras)

Side Plate (1 per person plus extras)

Drinking Glasses for each plus extra

Wine Glasses, Champagne Flutes

Can Opener

Corkscrew

Toaster

Kettle

Water Jug

3 x tea towels per day

Microwave

Chopping Boards

Iron and Ironing Board

Clothes Horse

Coat hangers (8 per wardrobe)

Doona inner (1 per bed)

2 towels per person plus extra

Sheet sets (2 for each bed)

Hand Soap and Hand Lotion

Shower Gel

Shampoo & Conditioner

Hair Dryer (one per bathroom)

Mop and Mop Bucket

Brush and Shovel

Washing Machine

Refrigerator

Toy Bins

Board Games, Books & DVD’s

Art as per Stylist

Decor as per Stylist

Bath ,mat and hand towel 2 for each bathroom

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Most people will already have the list above covered or just need to add a few items. The best place to purchase kitchen items is from Kmart, Target, Harris Scarf or a like.

For linen we shop at Catch of the Day and get towels of 600-800gsm and 1000TC sheets sets. They are so much cheaper than the shops. Factory outlets are another great source, we have a linenhouse factory outlet in Hampton and I will quite often go in there and get anything that we are short of.

Adairs is another favourite if you can get things on sale.

If we can help you out please reach out, if our packages don’t specifically have what you need then email us, we are happy to sort things.